


Ace of Hearts

by allthegoldmedals



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Ace/Aro Relationship, Ace/Aro Scott Moir, Ace/Aro Tessa Virtue, Aromantic, Asexuality, F/M, Growing Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 19:01:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18723055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthegoldmedals/pseuds/allthegoldmedals
Summary: Tessa and Scott are our favourite duo, and we're all convinced that they're in love, yet they maintain they're not in a romantic relationship.Growing up from 1997 to 2006.





	Ace of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> You could say this is an unconventional take on VirtueMoir, but I already said that about my other fic, Unconventional :) In any case, I've never seen an ace/aro take on VirtueMoir, and although it's just a product of my imagination, it could also make a lot of sense, if you really think about it...?

**1997**

Scott slammed the phone back down onto its holder. In part, he didn't want his mom to find him talking on the phone, wondering what was going on, then she would make him sit down and talk to her, and she was just one room over, and he didn't feel like talking about his feelings right now.

Mostly, though, he didn't want to hear Tessa's reaction. He felt so bad for her. She was such a nice girl, and they would be skating together for at least a little while longer, and they had barely just met. He didn't want her to be too upset that he was breaking up with her, but he just wasn't in the mood to have a girlfriend right now. It wasn't because his friends had teased him. He liked Tessa, he looked forward to skating with her more than anything else, and he was proud to hold her hand and call her his girlfriend. That is, until Danny teased him about it. That was two days ago, but his nine-year-old memory was unusually sharp, and he remembered every word of that conversation.

"Aww, Tessa's your girlfriend now!" his older brother had said with a laugh.

"I really like her," he had replied with a blush. "And she's a really good skater!"

Danny had laughed, then asked: "When are you gonna have the guts to ask her if you can kiss her?"

He had jumped up a bit in disgust. "Eww, Danny, that's gross!"

Danny had shrugged and laughed. "If you say so, Scotty! I'm sure you'll change your mind soon."

Since then, he had thought about it a lot, but he couldn't change his mind. He saw Tessa at the rink, and they practiced a bit, and he liked holding hands with her, and he even felt a little rush when she hugged him after a particularly good step sequence, but he couldn't imagine kissing her. That was just gross. He liked being Tessa's boyfriend, but if that was what a boyfriend had to do, he figured he wanted to be just friends.

That's why he called her to break up with her, but he was afraid that she still wanted to be with him. Worse yet, what if she wanted to kiss him? He shivered at the thought. No, he definitely wanted just to be friends. Tessa was such a nice girl, and he was super happy being skating partners and best friends. He thought, if they would be friends forever, he would be the happiest boy in the world.

And that's what he thought for at least a few years. What he never considered, though, is that he never felt that way towards the other kids at his school. He even had some friends from his math class who were girls, but he never felt the same way to them as he felt to Tessa. He attributed it to the fact that Tessa was his skating partner, and they were _best_ friends, not just normal friends, and he didn't notice that other best friends didn't spend every moment of every day looking forward to the next time they would see each other.

* * *

_I'm sorry, Tessa, but you can't be my girlfriend anymore._

Those were the only words she could make out before she heard the sound of a phone slamming down on its holder. So she wasn't Scott's girlfriend anymore. The first thing that she felt was relief. It sounded weird, anyways. _Girlfriend?_ She was never really comfortable with that. She'd rather just be his _best friend_ , she thought. The only reason why she hadn't broken up with him earlier was because she liked how they told each other everything, went to each other's houses every day, held hands when they skated around the rink, and spent all their free time together.

She wondered why she didn't feel that way toward anyone else. Whenever she was with Scott, she felt happy, like there was nothing else in the world. And every time she wasn't with him, she was counting down the hours until she would see him again. She never thought that way about any of her girl friends from school, who even complained when she chose to spend time with Scott instead of with them. But she supposed it was because he was her skating partner, and she loved skating more than anything else in the world, and he was a pretty good skater, too.

There was always a feeling in the back of her mind that maybe she actually liked him, that she just felt weird about being his girlfriend because she was only seven years old. She was smart, and mature for her age, and more in tune with her feelings than some kids twice her age. But she had also listened to Jordan's stories of what relationships were like, and she knew for a fact that she wanted nothing to do with being in a relationship with Scott.

She just wanted him to smile at her like he always did, feel her heart flutter a little, hug him a little tighter every time he hugged her, and think about him every moment of the day.

* * *

**2002**

Scott knew they only had a few minutes until their parents would find them. They had just received their bronze medals, and that was a pretty big deal. They were third-place out of all Canada's novice ice dancers, and he was really proud of them. He was only 14, but that still made him two years older than Tessa, and he felt a certain obligation, not to protect her, but to care for her. He knew she felt the same way, and that was why they were literally inseparable. He spent more time with Tessa than he did with his own family, and he was okay with that.

"I'm so proud of us!" he exclaimed as she hugged him excitedly after they exited backstage. He hugged her back with just as much enthusiasm, feeling an overwhelming sense of happiness. They had worked tirelessly to prepare for the championship, and they were returning with the most important medals they had ever won.

"We were awesome," she agreed, her bright smile contagious, and he smiled back, before she spoke again. "Hey, we should probably go find our parents-"

"Wait!" he interrupted, then blushed, seeing her surprised expression. He didn't often interrupt her. "I was just gonna say... I'm really glad you're my partner," he told her bashfully. "And that... you're my best friend, too."

If it was possible, her smile seemed to grow even more, and her eyes lit up. "Me too," she replied, taking his hand in hers like she had done so many times in the past and jumping happily. "You're the best friend ever, Scott!"

He thought it was the greatest compliment he had ever received. "You're the best friend ever, too, Tessa," he responded, swinging her arm playfully with their hands intertwined. "I really like hanging out with you."

"Me too," she replied, and he knew she meant it. "I really like you, Scott."

His eyes widened in fear and he dropped her hand, and seeing his reaction, her expression mirrored his.

"Not in _that_ way!" she cried, her nose wrinkling, before she started laughing. "Ew..."

He laughed, too, seeing that she really meant it. It was just a simple misunderstanding on his part, and he was a bit embarrassed that he had interpreted her that way. A little part of him worried that she was only twelve years old, that her feelings could change, but the idea seemed so unlikely that he just chose to focus on what she really meant.

"I like you too, Tessa," he said with a laugh, "but not in _that_ way, either! You're my best friend, but nothing more!"

His emphatic declaration made her laugh, and they were all good again, at least for a moment. But that night, as Scott lay restlessly in bed, he thought of his own words. Tessa was his best friend, and he _definitely_ didn't like her in _that_ way, but she definitely was more than just a best friend to him, especially as of late.

Only a few nights ago, he'd once had a dream in which Tessa had moved away without telling anyone, and he never saw her again. He had woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, and he would never tell anyone, but he had cried himself back to sleep. After that, he had been sure to hug her just a little tighter, make sure she never left him, because he couldn't imagine his life without him. When he tried to think about it in the day, it seemed silly, and he knew that he couldn't tell anyone about how he was feeling, because they would just laugh at him and say he was being dramatic. But in the late nights at the rink, when it was dark and all he could think of was the two of them, his mind was spinning with emotion, and that was when they skated the best.

He knew he could never tell her about _those_ feelings. She wouldn't understand. She would just think he had a crush on her, a really bad crush, and that would ruin their friendship forever, and that would almost be worse than never seeing her again. But he could love her without wanting to be _with_ her, right? He didn't really know, but he knew that Tessa would be a part of his life, maybe for the rest of his life.

* * *

**2004**

She should have been at least a little scared, or nervous, or worried. But instead, Tessa was beyond excited. She and Scott were moving to Canton to train, and although her whole family was a little uncertain, she knew beyond a doubt that this was what she wanted. She would finally get that independence that she had always craved, and best of all, she would be spending all her time with her favourite person in the world.

They had already travelled the world to compete, but as they sat in the busy train station, waiting to take the train across the border, it felt different. They had said goodbye to their families, not to see them again for at least a few months, and suddenly, it was just them. They were each other's family now.

"Hey, Tessa," Scott said, trying to get her attention over the noise of the train station.

She didn't respond, having not heard him through the noise, and she was absorbed in the book she was reading to pass the time.

"Tessa," he said a little louder, tapping her on the shoulder.

She looked up and closed her book. "Yeah?"

"I'm bored," he complained, and she laughed. He was 17, and she would have thought that his independence would make him a little more mature. Despite her being two years younger, he was the one who acted like a kid, more often than not.

"Okay, what do you want to do?" she asked, knowing they had a while to go before their train arrived. "We don't have anything to do except sit here and wait."

"I just really want to get to Canton by now," he said impatiently. "I'm so excited!"

She laughed at his enthusiasm. "Excited for what? To work ten hours a day? To take dance lessons? To spend every moment of every day with me? Sounds brutal to me," she joked.

"Yeah," he replied with complete sincerity, much to her surprise.

She was going to ask him to elaborate, then she reflected on herself. She was beyond excited. She couldn't wait to skate full-time, pursuing their dreams together. She loved dance, and she was excited for that aspect of their training. Above all, she filled with anticipation and excitement at the thought of spending all her time with Scott. That in itself sounded like a dream.

Of course, she couldn't tell him that, because he wouldn't really understand. He always told her how much he liked her and liked spending time with her, and always in a purely platonic way, of course. She was afraid he would misinterpret her, but she just really, really liked him, and she wanted to be his best friend for life, was there anything so wrong about that? She didn't know.

"You're going to be so sick of me after a couple of months," she joked, a complete contrast to how she actually felt.

"I don't think I ever could be," he replied with a smile.

He always said the right things to make her heart skip a beat, and she even allowed herself to imagine that he might, just maybe, feel the same about her as she felt about him. But it could just as easily be his way of being his usual charming self.

"Do you say that to all girls?" she joked, feeling the need to keep it lighthearted.

"No, just you," he said with a laugh, before realizing what she had meant. "I mean-"

"No, I know-"

"That would be weird-"

She laughed. Their friendship had always been this way. They sometimes said things that bordered on more-than-friends, but they had always been friends, nothing more. She winced at the thought of being more than friends. That was gross. Come to think of it, despite being well into their teenage years, she couldn't understand why everyone her age was obsessed with boys. She had never felt that way towards anyone, and he had never expressed feeling that way towards anyone, either.

"Aren't you gonna miss the boys back home?" he teased. "It's just me and you in Canton."

"What boys?" she asked, confused, before understanding what he meant. "Oh. Not really. I don't really like anyone like that."

"Really?" he asked, clearly surprised, as if he thought she was just like all the other teenage girls, before he reflected on himself. "Yeah, me neither."

"Never?" she asked, surprised. As far as she was concerned, he was almost legally an adult, and she had assumed that he'd had crushes just like any teenage boy would.

"Nah," he replied simply, pausing to think. "I guess you could say the closest I've ever felt to that is with... _you_ , but we're just best friends, because, well, ew!"

She laughed. She felt the exact same way. She loved Scott with all her heart, but she could never think of him as a romantic partner. He was her skating partner, her best friend, a very special kind of best friend. And a few hours later, they were alone but together in a different country, and she wondered how she got so lucky to have him in her life.

* * *

**2006**

Another year, another world juniors. This year was Tessa and Scott's third world juniors, and it was also their last. No Canadian ice dance team had ever won the world juniors, although they had been second last year. They knew it wouldn't be easy, but they had also spent years training alongside the best ice dance teams in the world.

With such intense competition, they had become inseparable, quite literally. They learned together, trained together, and lived together. Sometimes they missed home, but mostly, it was the best time of their lives. Every part of their lives had become one; it was like they were two halves of the same person.

Most people they encountered remarked that they looked like a cute couple, spending all their time with each other, but they just shook their heads and laughed. No one quite understood their relationship, which was okay, because they did, or at least it didn't concern them.

"It's kind of funny that people think we're together," Tessa said one day, as they were walking to the rink for their last practice before they would be leaving for Slovenia for the world juniors.

He laughed. "It is! But I guess they say that about all the ice dance and pairs teams."

"They just don't understand that a guy and a girl can be just friends," she reflected. "Which is kind of annoying! Because there isn't _anyone_ that I want to be _with_ , you know what I mean?"

"Me too," he agreed. "But I feel like we're more than just friends, you know? Like, I don't want to be _with_ you, but I've basically spent my whole life with you, and it's awesome!"

What he really meant was that he wanted to spend his whole life with her, but not in a romantic way, and he would be the happiest guy in the world. By this point, he knew that she felt the same way about him, and he couldn't be happier.

She nodded in agreement. "You're ace, right?" she asked. "Or aro, or-"

The realization hit him like a freight train. Of course Tessa would know him better than he knew himself. He was ace, asexual, and aro, aromantic. He had never been in love, per se, but he loved Tessa more than anyone else in the world.

"Scott?" she said tentatively, noticing the sudden shift in his expression. "Sorry, did I say something-"

He started to laugh, partly from his own overreaction, and mostly because it was like a slap to his forehead. It had been so obvious to him, but he had never been able to put a label on it, and Tessa had figured it out.

"No, it's all good," he replied with a smile, when he stopped laughing. "It just makes so much more sense now!"

"What?" she said, clearly confused.

"I'm ace, that's why I've never wanted to be _with_ you, but you're basically my whole life, and I couldn't imagine not being with you, and you're the one who figured it out, which is hilarious-"

She started to laugh, too. "Oh! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed without actually knowing, but also, I've never been really subtle about liking you, and you never cared, so I figured you're ace, too, and I guess this means we have a lot to talk about-"

He smiled and put his arm around her, cutting her off. "I think we'll be okay. We've been like this our whole lives; there's nothing we have to change. I'm just glad you're my friend."

There was so much more he could say, but now that he knew that they were both in the same boat, he knew he didn't have to say anything. She understood him better than anyone else, and she understood him better than he had even thought.

"Ready for worlds?" she asked with a smile.

"You bet," he replied affirmatively. "And then we'll say goodbye to juniors!"

"But we'll be training even harder for Vancouver," she reminded him of their dream of competing in the Olympics. "Because we're going to make it this time."

He nodded, holding out his fist for a fist-bump. "Here's to Vancouver!"

She laughed and bumped his fist with hers. "Here's to gold medals," she added. "And to a long and successful career!"

He smiled. "Here's to our life."

_Our life_ , he thought. Not our lives. One life, with both of us. He liked the sound of that. And he knew that no matter what, whatever they did, they would do it together.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I hope this was something to think about, and feedback is most appreciated! (By the way, I still do think Tessa and Scott like each other in a very romantic way...)


End file.
